This invention relates to a method and apparatus for preparing frozen confection in micro batch portions, and more particularly to a method of making a custom frozen product for each customer.
Throughout the 20th century ice cream has grown in popularity with the American public consuming about 85% of the world's ice cream. Approximately 60% of that ice cream is purchased from scoop shops, food service and other retail sales outlets. Historically, one common way for retail outlets to provide product is by purchasing pre-frozen product from a manufacturer or using machines that freeze a pre-mix that is then scooped into cups or cones. These methods give the merchant a limited number of flavors, mix-ins, textures, and grades of product.
Premium retailers often use a conventional machine on-site to freeze and store the pre-mix until it is scooped and mixed with mix-ins. In some cases, mix-ins are added to a frozen product by physical mashing with a spade on a frozen stone. The stone aids in keeping the product frozen when mixing the non frozen mix-ins.
As the ice cream mixture freezes, ice crystals form. The shorter the freezing process, the more minute and less detectable the ice crystals. As a result, the faster an ice cream or yogurt product is frozen, the creamier the end product will be. Thus, ice cream manufacturers seek to freeze the product as quickly as possible to produce a richer and creamier product than ice cream frozen using the typical, conventional methods of freezing ice cream.
Previously, frozen dessert products such as ice cream or frozen yogurt have been cooled using conventional refrigeration. This is usually a fairly slow process. Consequently, preparing small batches of frozen ice cream, which may require significant waiting time to permit the ice cream to freeze, has often been rendered impractical.
Furthermore, quick freezing usually requires significant physical contact between the freezing agent and the ice cream mixture. Conventional refrigeration systems typically do not provide such physical contact. Thus, attempts have been made to use cryogenic refrigerants, such as liquid nitrogen, to speed freezing. Unfortunately, this often caused the ice cream mix to freeze uncontrollably, creating a heterogeneous texture while sticking to the mixing containers.
Some prior devices use mechanisms and cryogenic refrigerant to form novelty shapes of cream (see U.S. Pat. No. 5,664,422) or to create a frozen confection in batches larger than could be consumed per customer (see U.S. Pat. No. 6,510,890). Both apparatus disclosed in those patents produce a free flowing product of a certain texture, flavor and consistency.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,510,890 discloses the use of liquid nitrogen in a device to freeze ice cream, but does so in a continuous flow of standard product rather than creating a micro batch of customized product. Batch processing or continuous flow processing does not lend itself to creating custom product in small quantities.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,126,256 and 5,664,422 disclose a device that uses liquid nitrogen for preparation and storing a free-flowing frozen dairy product. This process is complex in both design and operation. The resulting product has been frozen into small beads. The beads must be kept sufficiently cold to retain a free-flowing character, and so they must be removed from the mixing chamber with an auger to another container. The beads must also be warmed before consumption. All of this complicates the delivery of the ice cream to the consumer.
Thus, a simpler method that permits the customer to request a particular pre-mix, flavor, mix-in and texture, which mixture is then frozen to the customer's specification in a short time to create a customized product, has been needed. The entire process needs to be simple, scalable, portable, reproducible and quick, to permit serving numerous customers. Because the product is being made according to the request of an individual customer, the portions must also be produced in a micro batch process. The process should also be capable of reducing the startup cost of production, making it portable, and overall more cost-effective.